I decided to introduce four very traditional Finnish foods that you should taste if you ended up in this country for some reason.

Mustamakkara (black sausage)

Mustamakkara is a specialty from my home city Tampere and has been produced by Tapola’s legendary family business for over 60 years. It’s a blood sausage filled with hulled grains and pork. Classic way to eat this delicacy is to buy a couple of bars of it from the market place and enjoy it with lingonberry jam and cold milk. The most traditional market places with Tapola’s stalls are Tammelantori and Laukontori.

Jaloviina (precious liquor)

Jaloviina (nicknamed Jallu) is a Finnish cut brandy, a mixture of cognac and vodka. It was released into the market in 1932 by Altia after the prohibitionary liquor law. Nowadays, Jaloviina is a very popular drink in Finland with half million bottles sold per year. Especially engineering students are well-known for consuming this precious drink.

Hernekeitto (pea soup)

Pea soup is a food that is served on almost every singlelunch restaurant in Finland on Thursdays. It’s made of dried peas and usually includes pork. Traditionally pea soup is enjoyed with mustard and sometimes with raw onion too. As a dessert, you will have pancakes with strawberry jam. Must try this combo!

Ruisleipä (rye bread)

Rye bread, the most loved bread in Finland. In fact, the bread in this picture below (Vaasan ruispalat), is the most sold bread in Finland. Rye bread is a good choice for breakfast or snack, or to be enjoyed with lunch. It’s usually eaten with butter, cheese and ham, maybe also with some vegetables like sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. And for some people, it’s a serious topic of conversation which is the correct order to place ham and cheese on the bread: ham on the top or cheese on the top. Rye bread is the first thing I miss in Finland when I’m abroad!

Welcome!

This blog is your window to Finnishness. Here you will find blog posts written by students of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) describing their personal experiences and notions of being a Finn or living in Finland. This blog is part of the course "Intercultural Experiences and Competences" and was started in spring 2016.

You can use the tag cloud to find posts with specific contents, and to find posts from a specific month, use the navigation at the bottom of the page titled “Blog Post Archive”. Feel free to leave comments as well! Enjoy!